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As Clinton Shifts Themes, Debate Arises on Her Motives

WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 - Conservatives have long caricatured Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York's junior senator, as the sort of Democrat whose positions on social issues are out of step with Americans deeply concerned about religious and moral values.

But while Mrs. Clinton has been strongly identified with polarizing issues like abortion rights, the picture that conservative Republicans paint of her is at odds with a side of herself she has lately displayed as she enters a new phase of her public life.

In a recent series of public appearances, Mrs. Clinton has generated considerable attention -- and, in some cases, scorn -- by imbuing her remarks with mentions of God, faith, prayer and the need to be more tolerant of people who are opposed to abortion and gay marriage because of their beliefs.

By design or not, Mrs. Clinton has displayed remarkable timing. Her comments come against the backdrop of the Democratic Party's efforts to shed its secular image after suffering major electoral defeats in November at the hands of Republicans, who emphasized Christian values in their campaigns.

Are they a calculated effort to court religious traditionalists as she positions herself to run for the presidency, as her critics maintain?

Or do they reflect the true convictions of a woman who has sought to give a fuller picture of herself since leaving the White House and who, associates say, has been deeply and openly religious her entire life?

Putting those questions aside, the comments are also striking because they come from a highly reserved, and even guarded, woman who in the past has invoked a zone of privacy in declining to talk about intimate matters.

Recently, for example, Mrs. Clinton drew attention to her own spirituality as she discussed the major role that values played in the November elections. "I have spent a lot of time over the course of my lifetime wrestling with and dealing with questions of my faith," she told an audience at Tufts University in November.

In that speech, Mrs. Clinton also told the audience that it would be "a great disservice to dismiss" the concerns of Americans who were driven to the polls because of their opposition to issues like gay marriage. "People had deeply held feelings," she said.

In another recent appearance in Boston, Mrs. Clinton argued that religious people ought to be permitted to "live out their faith in the public square" and said that she herself had "always been a praying person." In that address, she mentioned God more than a dozen times.

In talking about her faith as she travels the country, Mrs. Clinton has taken up a traditional Democratic cause, fighting poverty. In her appearance at Tufts, for example, she said there is a "much broader definition" of "morality and values" than was discussed during the recent elections.

"It is always intriguing to me that so many people have a very narrow definition of morality and then often try to peg their definition, in the case of Christianity, to the Scriptures," she said. "And no one can read the New Testament of our Bible without recognizing that Jesus had a lot more to say about how we treat the poor than most of the issues that were talked about in this election."

Though Mrs. Clinton has received praise in many quarters for such comments, not everyone is convinced about the purity of her motives.

In a recent interview, Michael Long, the head of New York State's Conservative Party, called her a "political secularist" who was merely making an appeal to religious traditionalists in preparation for a presidential campaign.

"All of a sudden she is saying she has these deep convictions," he said. "I don't believe that. It's clear to me that she is getting ready to launch her candidacy for presidency, and she will become whatever she has to become to appeal to centrist voters."

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But her advisers and close associates scoff at that characterization, arguing that faith has been a central part of her life since her days growing up in a Methodist home outside Chicago.

"This is not something new to her," said one senior Clinton adviser. "Faith is integral to who she is. This is someone who used to teach Sunday school in Arkansas."

That faith, they say, has sustained her throughout a public life that has made her an object of painful scrutiny, particularly during her days in the White House dealing with issues like her husband's infidelity.

"I'm sure she got through some of those tough times in her White House years because of her faith," said Melanne Verveer, the first lady's chief of staff. "She had little prayer cards she would carry with her and look at on occasion."

A churchgoer for years, Mrs. Clinton also joined a prayer group led by Republicans when she took office in the Senate in 2001, her associates and aides note.

Those who know her say one of the most influential figures in her life was Donald Jones, her youth minister in Park Ridge, Ill., who remained so close to her through the years that he sometimes accompanied her on the campaign trail to offer moral support during her 2000 Senate bid in New York.

In her 2003 memoir, "Living History," Mrs. Clinton credits Mr. Jones with shaping her notions about social justice with his assertion that a Christian life was "faith in action." Among other things, she writes, he took her and others in her youth group to listen to a speech by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Mrs. Clinton also wrote that she was "particularly" thankful for the support and counsel Mr. Jones gave her when she and the nation learned about her husband's affair with an intern.

"Don reminded me of a classic sermon by the theologian Paul Tillich, 'You Are Accepted,' which Don had once read to our youth group in Park Ridge," she says in the book. "Its premise is how sin and grace exist through life in constant interplay; neither is possible without the other. The mystery of grace is that you cannot look for it."

Mrs. Clinton weighed in on the debate over abortion recently, telling a prominent abortion-rights group in New York that adversaries on the issue should come together on "common ground" to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies. The senator also praised religious organizations for promoting abstinence.

Her aides say there was nothing new about her position, arguing that it was consistent with comments she had made in the past as well as her husband's call for making abortion "safe, legal and rare."

But others, including Democratic allies, said her decision to speak out on the issue now was politically noteworthy, particularly since some Democrats believe the party needs to soften its stance on abortion in order to appeal to religious conservatives who often agree with Democrats on issues like social welfare and jobs.

"It seemed like a sign that she is taking steps to position herself for a presidential run in 2008," said one Democratic strategist. "Otherwise, there was no reason for her to talk about this, especially in a heavily pro-choice state like New York."

For her part, Mrs. Clinton has at times dealt with the question of her faith in a lighthearted manner, tucking a few lines about growing up in a very religious household into speeches in Boston and Palm Beach.

"People often ask me whether I'm a praying person, and I say I was lucky enough to be raised in a praying family, and learned to say my prayers as a very young child," she recently said. "But I also say that had I not been a praying person that after I'd been in the White House for a few months, I would have become a praying person."